Coronary artery disease may produce coronary lesions in the blood vessels providing blood to the heart, such as a stenosis (abnormal narrowing of a blood vessel). As a result, blood flow to the heart may be restricted. A patient suffering from coronary artery disease may experience chest pain, referred to as chronic stable angina during physical exertion or unstable angina when the patient is at rest. A more severe manifestation of disease may lead to myocardial infarction, or heart attack.
Patients suffering from chest pain and/or exhibiting symptoms of coronary artery disease may be subjected to one or more tests that may provide some indirect evidence relating to coronary lesions. For example, noninvasive tests may include electrocardiograms, biomarker evaluation from blood tests, treadmill tests, echocardiography, single positron emission computed tomography (SPECT), and positron emission tomography (PET). The noninvasive tests may provide indirect evidence of coronary lesions by looking for changes in electrical activity of the heart (e.g., using electrocardiography (ECG)), motion of the myocardium (e.g., using stress echocardiography), perfusion of the myocardium (e.g., using PET or SPECT), or metabolic changes (e.g., using biomarkers). These noninvasive tests, however, do not predict outcomes of interventions.
For example, anatomic data may be obtained noninvasively using coronary computed tomographic angiography (CCTA). CCTA may be used for imaging of patients with chest pain and involves using computed tomography (CT) technology to image the heart and the coronary arteries following an intravenous infusion of a contrast agent. However, CCTA cannot provide direct information on the functional significance of coronary lesions, e.g., whether the lesions affect blood flow. In addition, since CCTA is purely a diagnostic test, it does not predict outcomes of interventions.
Invasive testing may also be performed on patients. For example, diagnostic cardiac catheterization may include performing conventional coronary angiography (CCA) to gather anatomic data on coronary lesions by providing a doctor with an image of the size and shape of the arteries. However, CCA also does not predict outcomes of interventions.
Thus, a need exists for a method to predict outcomes of medical, interventional, and surgical treatments on coronary artery blood flow.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the disclosure.